Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For September that debut is Small Joys of Real Life by Allee Richards, out now from Hachette.

The night Eva shared a smile with Pat, something started. Two weeks later, lying together in her bed, Pat said, ‘You can’t live your life saying you’ll get around to doing something you know will make you happy. You just have to do it.’ Eva didn’t know how devastating those words would turn out to be. Pat dies and the aftershock leaves Eva on unsteady ground. She is pregnant. And she has to make a choice.

First Book Club host Ellen Cregan spoke with Allee about the book and the experience of writing it at a live online event hosted by Yarra Libraries.

Our theme song is Broke for Free’s ‘Something Elated’. Sound production by Lloyd Pratt.

Further reading:

Read a review of Small Joys of Real Life in our September Books Roundup.

Read about Allee’s favourite books and reading habits in this month’s Shelf Reflection.

Read Allee’s short story This Version of Her from New Australian Fiction 2019.

Small Joys of Real Life is available now from your local independent bookseller.

(more…)